Lot 83
  • 83

THEODORE WORES | Chinese Musicians

Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 USD
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Description

  • Theodore Wores
  • Chinese Musicians
  • signed Theo. Wores., inscribed S.F. and dated 1884. (lower right)
  • oil on canvas
  • 30 by 35 1/2 inches
  • (76.2 by 90.2 cm)

Provenance

Lord Rosebery, England, by 1889
Private collection, by 1984 (sold: Sotheby's, New York, Fine Chinese Works of Art, Paintings and Furniture, March 17, 1984, lot 441B)
Acquired by the present owner at the above sale

Exhibited

London, Dowdeswell Galleries, A Collection of Pictures of Japanese and Chinese Life, by Theodore Wores, July 1889, n.p.
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 2016-April 2017 (on loan)

Literature

The Star, London, July 9, 1889, n.p.
The Table, London, July 6, 1889, n.p.
The Queen, London, July 27, 1889, n.p.

Condition

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes, Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is in beautiful condition. The canvas is well stretched and has never been removed from its original stretcher. The paint layer is stable. There do not appear to be any retouches. Under ultraviolet light, one can see that the white tablecloth and white socks of the figures have been cleaned slightly more than the remainder of the picture. The work is freshly varnished, but it seems that the remainder of the picture is still dirty beneath this varnish. As the condition of the work is so good, further cleaning in these darker colors is not necessarily recommended.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

A noted landscape and genre painter, Theodore Wores was born in San Francisco, California, in 1859. He was one of the first students of the School of Design of the San Francisco Art Association and studied under Virgil Williams, a former student of George Inness. In 1874, Wores left for Munich to train at the Royal Academy, where he befriended Frank Duveneck and William Merritt Chase. After being introduced to James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Wores developed a passionate interest in the arts of Japan. Returning to the United States in 1881, Wores began a series of images dedicated to San Francisco's Chinatown, a neighborhood that he had first come to know and appreciate during his youth. 

Wores' Chinatown subjects are extremely rare, as most were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Chinese Fishmonger, one of the few works to survive in addition to Chinese Musicians, is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Of the present work, Wores remarked: "All the Chinese pictures at my show were painted in the Chinese quarter in San Francisco. I have never been in China itself. You see, it's the dream of every young artist to find a new line—something that nobody has done before. No American artist had touched Chinese life, and I saw my chance there" (quoted in The Star, London, July 9, 1889). When it was exhibited at Dowdeswell Galleries in 1889, Chinese Musicians was highly praised in the London press: "The Earl of Rosebery's Chinese Musicians and Sir Thomas Hesketh's Chinese Provision Shop are particularly fine examples of Mr. Wores' art" (The Table, London, July 6, 1889, n.p.).

We are grateful to Professor Chad Mandeles of the Fashion Institute of Technology, author of Theodore Wores's Chinese Fishmonger in a Cosmopolitan Context (The American Art Journal, vol. 16, no. 1, Winter, 1984), for researching this lot.